Simple Match Fishing Forum

Been a couple of decades since I last fished here............

Bit of a stinker really...........could be one of hundreds of places


Spose I'd better give a bit of a clue........used to host lots of 50-100 peggers 20 or 30 years ago, but cant remember the last time I saw it mentioned in the press........

Looks like Horninglow, on the T and M.

t&m arlewas/rowington?

Come on Manny - one or the other

Is it Rowington, taken from the Navigation Bridge?

And I dunno how you plucked that out - must have been too good a clue 

Bills bet ya too it Manny

I should know, - I think I'm on that picture.

Wasn't it a West Midlands League match, - if you follow the far bank up I was opposite the overflow, I had five skimmers for nearly 3 lb.

Blood hell Bill - nowt wrong with your eyes

im only a babby bit before me time knew it was the T&M just named the two places i knew there used to be matches on thats all wasnt chaytin honest.....

Spose Massey Fergusons long since gone Bill?

If you look close there is one guy sat right back from the towpath opposite that overflow. That was me, the bank was busted where I drew and the canal was lower than normal anyway. Next to me (nearer) is Mark Downes.

I think third one up is Paul Downes and the one past him would be one of my old team mates Paul Gimbert.

We were fishing as Stafford Trotters in those days.

I think Tony Hobday ran the last of the Massey matches there; they may still have some of the water there but they may have also folded, - I'm not sure.

one guy sat right back from the towpath

On the pult or tying up another rig

That was a terrific league in those days.
Cofton Hackett with Clive Smith, Max Winters and Ken Giles
Cov with Billy Lane and many others
Coleshill with Austen Clissett, Joe Fell and Les Prust
An emerging Starlets
Coalbrookdale

Dread to think how many England men were on view and some that fished since.
To give you some idea of the ability Starlets would finish in the bottom three but their time was to come

Although there were other WL leagues in the area everyone wanted to fish against the best.

Pretty sure this was just before Kingfisher joined Cofton.

Has it changed?

Back to that League, six venues were used one canal, two on Warwickshire Avon at Hampton Ferry and a deep bit I forget the name of. There was one on the North Bank, one on the Thames and the other was was varied as Derwent, Trent and other venues were tried (Oxford Canal was another). No matches were ever cancelled for floods if I remember. There was a minimum of 12 teams (of 12) in it with a waiting list.

Used to travel over to Birmingham on a Thursday night to pay the pool money and see what sections were in.

Got caught out in the mayhem of the terrible bomb attacks on the last Thursday of an October evening, - if it wasn't for the traffic lights on red we would have been right in front of the pub, I think it was the Mulberry Bush. I don't think we went again, my cousin used to take me and he was very ill afterwards, - he vowed never to go to B'ham again, - as far as I know he hasn't. It was good while before I could speak about it but it will stay in my memory for ever.

Anyway,the round you see in the picture was generally pegged where you see (Navigation straight) as far as you can see, round an S bend to Rising Lane bridge and beyond past the gas pipe.
I fished one or two West Mids Team Champs on there with well over 300 on it (15 a side then).

Some happy and some not so happy days

I thought rowington was on the grand union.

I thought rowington was on the grand union.

Rowington is on the Grand Union

Rowington was the next stretch to Shrewley (behind Tunnel Barn Farm).
The Masseys matches used to be very popular in the late 80's and early 90's,not sure when or why they finished as i had given up fishing by 94 and didn't start again till 2008,by which time the puddles had taken a grip on the match scene.
There were some big carp in that stretch,but not a good idea catching them on light elastic,especially when they swim into the next peg and start thrashing about.

Shrewley was the other side of the bridge from where this pic was taknen.

In the latter days of the big matches they started using that stretch as well; I think the Stratford Arm came off it up there somewhere; can remember the occasional section being pegged on that.

I far preferred Rowington , although the weights were not quite as big as Shrewley I though it was a much fairer venue.

I think the guys that ran the matches tutrned to the dark side, - also a few zander started to apopear at Rowington

Did anyone ever find the actual 'Rowington Green'?